An area of ongoing research and development is in improving performance of communication over a network, and in particular a wireless network. Some wireless networks are governed by IEEE 802.11 standards. While not all networks need to use all of the standards associated with 802.11, a discussion of the standards by name, such as 802.11n provides, at least partly because the standards are well-known and documented, a useful context in which to describe issues as they relate to wireless systems.
An important aspect of providing wireless services is in ensuring that service interruption or failure is avoided when roaming. Roaming is when a wireless device transitions from one access point on a wireless network to another access point on the same wireless network. During hand-off, Layer 2 (hereinafter referred to as “L2”), Layer 3 (hereinafter referred to as “L3”), and Layer 4 (hereinafter referred to as “L4”) features, such as quality of service (QoS), firewall, etc. are maintained by, typically, synching L2 to L4 session information to the access point to which a wireless device roams.
Layer 7 (hereinafter referred to as “L7”) information is stateful. Deep packet inspection (DPI) technology often requires scanning into payload of a subplurality of packets of 5-tuple based internet protocol (IP) sessions to identify application information. Application information can be used to manage and maintain L7 application based features, such as QoS, firewall, etc. The number of packets and sessions needed to accurately identify application information varies from application to application. A challenge of synchronizing L7 applications of 5-tuple IP sessions between access points (APs) is at least in part because roaming can occur at any time, and when it does occur it can interrupt ongoing DPI classification. For example, it typically takes about 10 packets to accurately identify an Apple FACETIME® session; so if roaming occurs after a first packet is received but before the first 10 packets are received from the roaming client, the AP receiving the packets will not be able to complete its classification of the application. Similarly, the AP to which the client roams will be unable to perform its classification of the application because it did not receive at least the first packet. Accordingly, a user of a roaming client device can experience session drop, network latency, bandwidth congestion due to incorrect firewall or QoS policies as a result of missing L7 application information, causing degradation of the user experience particularly with long-lived sessions such as video streaming, file transfers, VoIP teleconferences, and the like.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. For example, wireless clients may use different protocols other than 802.11, potentially including protocols that have not yet been developed. However, problems associated with multiple authentications may persist. Other limitations of the relevant art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the specification and studying of the drawings.